Today was a very special ceremony, for a wonderful couple that took place in the bride's family home in Betchworth in the Surrey Countryside.

Having met these two at one of my beautiful barn ceremonies last year (they were guests), we began building ideas for a truly personal wedding day.  Having been given the opportunity to hold their wedding within the stunning grounds of the family home, my couple set about planning a garden reception for their guests that included a fabulous afternoon tea, and some amazing speeches!

Over the past few months, I have developed a great relationship with the bride and groom, and been welcomed into the family home, meeting their son and parents, which helped me to create a lovely and very personal ceremony for them.  We had their son join us for some declarations at the very beginning (he did so well and was impeccably behaved - well done George!), and then two lovely readings by friends of the couple and their family. 

I wrote about the couple and their journey to the wedding day, and we included the creation of a marriage memories box, as well as giving their cake a whole section of the ceremony too!  In keeping with the afternoon tea theme, the couple wanted to have the cake present, and so we used this to honour and acknowledge the bride's grandparents, by having her nana's flowers adorning the layers, and her grandfathers Gurkha Kukri (knife), which has been traditionally used to cut the cake as family weddings.

We concluded the celebrations to rapturous applause and confetti raining down as they left the ceremony to join guests for champagne and canapés on the lawns before heading into their reception for the afternoon tea.

Not only was this a huge honour to conduct their ceremony (what better compliment than to be booked by guests from a previous wedding!), but I had the opportunity to meet with my couple from last year too, and reminisce and celebrate with them too.

A wonderful day for a truly fabulous couple.  Congratulations Kristy & James!!

The 'dream team' today were:

Knight Ceremonies (Celebrant)  www.knightceremonies.co.uk

Icing on the Cake (Catering)  www.theicingonthecake.info/wedding-events/

The Oak and the Owl (Florist)  https://www.theoakandtheowl.co.uk/

Linsey Grace (Photography)  http://www.lynseygracephotography.com/